After weeks of planning, the big day was finally here - Tai Pi's Fear Factor Birthday Party! Tai Pi has always been quite adventurous and game for most things, and she likes watching Fear Factor, so I thought it would be fun for her to have a Fear Factor party for her 8th birthday. I didn't want to make the games too scary as most of the kids were pre-schoolers. Ok, so the Fear Factor Happy Meal was a bit too much for some of the kids to stomach. One of the little girls gagged on the hamster brain and spat it out but the older ones happily lapped up the eyeballs (lychee stuffed with chocolate buttons), the dog poo (marshmellow coated with chocolate), hamster brains (marshmellow coated with cordial), dirty worms (gummy worms covered in crushed Oreos) and drank up the pig's blood (cordial).
The other games were not so gross. There was pin-the-spider-on-the-web where they had to pin a spider as close to the centre of the web as possible (Pumpkin hit the bull's eye!). There was burst-the-balloons and a game involving sticking their arms into icy cold water to scoop out marbles from the bottom of a container.
But the best game of all was the final challenge, also the scariest, or so I thought. The kids had to stick their hands into a tank to retrieve some rubber frogs. The catch was that there were some thirty crickets crawling about in the tank. There was much apprehension and for a while I thought no one would take on the dare till finally Brain, in a grand show of courage, stuck his hand into the tank and pulled out nine rubber frogs in the given time. After that, more and more of the kids found the courage to do the same. Tai Pi cried at first but I said to her "it's all in your mind" and she overcame her fear and pulled out ten frogs and emerged the winner of the game. Before long, even the little ones like Sai Pi were reaching into the cricket tank. If nothing else, the party will be remembered for taking away any cricket phobia the kids had!
Later, the kids had a whack at a monster pinata and cake after that. It was definitely the best birthday party ever for Tai Pi and I had fun putting it together too. Happy Birthday Tai Pi!!!
